COLT NY

Aye, convinced now a Healthy Czech win is what we’re looking for. Rumored England team has them lining up with the same team except for fullbacks where James and Shaw come in. I’d be happy if that’s the reality.

Swap McGregor or Armstrong with Gilmour and I’d be happy with that. What do we want from this Croatia-Czech game? I can’t decide.

Taylor Twellman (who's a total dick) on ESPN... "Vaclik really wasn't put under any pressure against Scotland.... If he's under pressure against Croatia I'll be interested to see how he responds". ... and Chris Coleman just referred to England as "we". Very odd.

Mark Pougatch on ITV... "Locatelli's got two goals... I read recently that he's a massive fan of Murder She Wrote". ....Sounds like someone's been editing his wikipedia profile😉

Here's one from Chris Coleman on ESPN... Presenter: "it's hard to look beyond Gareth Bale when it comes to wales.... Chris?" CC: "...He's won 4 Champions Leagues, he's done what he's done. He's been at Madrid. He's a super player, a great talent.... He could play for England really!" WTF?

I'm not sure why so many think we'll be spending the game pegged back by England. I think if we play the right players we may be able to control more of the possession than would normally be the case. I remember the last time we went down to Wembley and we were played off the park in our pink tops without even laying a punch on them. Even in the 2-2 we didn't really look like scoring until Griffiths stepped up in the last minute or two. I think in both games the English players looked at our team sheet, saw a bunch of Celtic players they did know much about and assumed they would control the game. If they play the same midfield, they potentially have Rice, Mount and Phillips looking at McTominay, McGinn and Gilmour. If that's the case, they'll be expecting a game there without a doubt. That relative lack of assuredness might allow us to play Forrest or Fraser at right back and really take the game to them. I'd rather that than we sit back, let them have the ball and see if they can get past us. Our strikers aren't great, but neither are their centre halfs. Where we really struggle on matching up to them is at right back. If O'Donnell starts, whoever is on their left will be screaming for the ball. They'll probably be as respectful of his level as this board has been over the last day or two. Paterson is a risk as he's so untested, but there's loads of teams playing teenagers (including England) so we maybe shouldn't be so cautious. All the same, if it was me, I'd play Forrest or Fraser on the right and really have a go at them in this one.

Can’t help thinking about Maloneys goal against ROI. A well worked set play from a corner. We should be coming into the tournament with a few of this in our pocket. Wales got a point from doing just that. We sent the players back to see their families, but if we still didn’t have any set plays worked out I’d have recommended getting back out on the training pitch instead.

Can’t understand why our corners continue to be so tank rotten. We’ve had weeks to work on that.

Schicks two finishes have both been out of this world. Let’s not blame our own players for that.

This is the first time in the history of the Euros that England have started with a win. It might sound crazy, but I think we all have to consider that it must have something to do with the COVID vaccine.

I respectfully disagree with you, on all of it apart from your first statement.

Marshall Hanley Cooper Tierney Fraser Robertson McTominay Gilmour McGinn Christie Dykes

I was a bit disappointed that Lux got the red card as it meant there was probably less to learn from the game. Definite red though, and the challenge on Gilmour would have been a clear red in rugby so shouldn't be any less in a football game. Disappointed that we had so many corners and didn't get anything out of them. We should be doing a lot of work on dead ball plays ahead of the tournament. That could make all the difference. Despite scoring and having one chopped off, I thought Adams was wasteful. I haven't seen him play much, but I expected him to have better technique than what was shown today.

Grant Hanley named in Championship team of the year. Not sure it's enough to get him in the starting eleven though. The three we had starting against Holland looked pretty good, and allowed us to bring one on either side forward whenever we had the ball.

Ok here's my thoughts going into the tournament. Maybe it's influenced by not seeing us play for a number of weeks.... Without doing any research to be sure... Haven't we beaten the Czechs in the last three games against them? Haven't we beaten Croatia in the the last two and never lost to them in something like 7 games? Aren't we at home against both of them? We also have England in the group. Don't we almost always play above ourselves when we go against them? No reason to think we can't give them a game. They have a lot of good players who play in the same position, but this isn't a vintage England side. Won't we be fielding a team that will include mainly EPL players, including key players from Liverpool, Man U and Arsenal? Our team are no mugs, so it's about time we stopped pretending that we've no more chance than North Macedonia. This tournament is set up perfectly for us do achieve more than any Scotland squad has done before. Let's go in there expecting them to do it. All three games are winnable!

This thread is priceless. More than doubling your money in 9 months on a youngster playing for Celtic (with a bad injury record, and after the season they've had) is laughable? Even if he's been Celtic's best player this season, that's not really saying much. Meantime another youngster, the best player at another top end SPL club (but outside the old firm) isn't worth 1/3 of this laughable amount? They've both got a lot of potential, so both clubs should only sell for an amount they're more than happy with, and only if the player wants to leave. There's no way that Turnbull is more than twice the player that Ferguson is though.

Second oldest James Forrest? They both look about 5 years younger as well.

If it does happen, it has the potential to be a spectacular failure. They may be left with only the most mercenary of players willing to play in the league ( and forego all other competition). Similar to the China league but on a much bigger scale. I would be absolutely delighted for these clubs to all be removed from European competition. The football world would be far more interesting if they didn't exist. I guess what I'm saying is that I hate the idea of this closed door league for the rich, but any significant change has the potential to improve things from the inexorable decline of European football over the last 30 years as a competitive sport.

I'm so sick of this. How can we play the same scrappy team so many times and still not have a clue how to play against them. Its the same story every time and we still back off them and let them play in the next one. They must have improved their ranking spot by about 20 places just from playing us.

Mashall - At fault for the first goal, but has money in the bank and look very solid otherwise. O'Donnell - An enigma (Jim Bett was better though). Looks out of place in international football just from a look and feel perspective. Conversely, continues to be effective in creating chances and positioning is generally good. Hendry - Clearly a ball playing defender, which is what Clarke's looking for (right footed too) Hanley - Was worried with his fouls at the start, but he reigned it in really well and got a really good goal Tierney - Just a very good player. If he sang the anthem he'd be the complete player. Robertson - Not sure why we didn't attack more down the left as we were clearly stronger there. Came in for a lot of criticism on the radio but I thought he did okay. McTominey - Everything he did was good (apart from the last minute freekick). He didn't seem to do much though. We need him on the ball more. McGinn - I thought we could have used him more on attacks down the left. Generally high quality though and the goal was magnificent. Best used in attacking midfield. Armstong - Threatened to be our most dangerous player. Ultimately though, he was rather wasteful when he got in good positions. Plays better for Southampton Christie - I thought he was lucky not to get sent off in the first half when he went up for that ball at the edge of the box. Outside of indiscipline, I thought he was very good. Could have maybe scored in the first half, but he was a good presence in attack. Dykes - Worst game for Scotland? To me, he looked lethargic at times and on a different wavelength to the others.

Team announced... Marshall Hendry Hanley. Tierney O'Donnell. Robbo Mcginn McTominay Armstrong Dykes Christie

Not a bad team, but I'd prefer a goalkeeper. By the way your Nietzsche quote is total bollocks. Were the Romans and Vikings good people? Like it or not, Christianity was intrinsic to the development to every Western country, and is the basis of the modern day Western mentality (things like it's bad to kill someone or shag their bird). The world is a much better place because of it.

Gordon (if Marshall unfit) Hanley - McKenna - Tierney O'Donnell Robertson McTominay Armstrong - McGinn - Fraser Dykes

I'm not even sure that this clip does the save justice. I saw it live (well on the telly, like) and there was a second or two of confusion in the head over why the ball hadn't appeared in the back of the net. Timing of the save in the game makes it even better.

This is a really good article. Thanks for putting it together. One other analysis that I think would be interesting to see would be what the percentage of games drawn was for teams in the top two positions over the last couple of decades, and how that compares to Scotland. I suspect our percentage is higher. I think one of the biggest failures over Scottish management over the years has been that the coach has sent the players out with the mentality that a draw away from home (or at home against a decent team) is a good result. We've very rarely chased a game when it's even with 20 minutes to go. In the end of the day that's 2 points lost and 1 point gained. Arithmetically speaking, that's not likely to help us qualify. If we're going for top spot in this group (I agree that it's our best chance to qualify) we ought to treat every game as a six pointer rather than a must not lose.